Ah, satire. Tom Lehrer declared it dead when Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize. And just to keep the dirt on its grave firmly tramped down, we have the utterly predictable media reaction to the game by a one-man developer called Sigvatr and his creation: "Muslim Massacre".

You may be able to figure out roughly what the plan is from the title, but let's quote from his announcement:

The United States of America, a leader and role model for all in the modern world, is taking drastic measures to secure the freedom and safety of the world. Having born witness to the atrocities of the followers of Islam time and time again, it has been decided that the entire Muslim race shall be wiped from the surface of the Earth.

(Let's point out here and now that "Muslim" is not a race. It's a faith. This would be like saying "the entire Christian race".)

You, the American Hero, have valiantly volunteered to make landfall in the Middle East and ensure that no Muslim man or woman is left alive. Your mission priorities are to seek out and neutralize the Muslim leader Osama bin Laden, their radical cult leader Muhammad and finally Allah, taking down any targets you meet on the way.

Good luck, obviously, in finding Allah. And indeed Muhammad - there's no identikit for him.

So anyway, we have outraged anger from every and anyone who can be easily provoked into outraged anger. Let us, for the sake of letting people have their say, quote Mr Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation:

The Ramadhan Foundation expresses its deep condemnation and anger at the computer game released called Muslim massacre. This game is glorifying the killing of Muslims in the Middle East and we urge ISP providers to take action to remove this site from their services as it incites violence towards Muslims and is trying to justify the killing of innocent Muslims.

We have written to the British Government today to urge an inquiry into this game and take action to shut down the site; this is not satire but a deliberate attempt to demonise Muslims.

The argument that "this is not satire" is an interesting one, because who's to say what's satire? I think it's one that judges decide.

Good luck with the ISPs, though, as it's not hosted in Britain. It was also annnounced on the SomethingAwful forums, where the (principally American) readers who I don't think would normally listen to Lehrer - or indeed Kissinger - seemed to have litle trouble discerning that this wasn't telling them to go and, um, slaughter Muslims in real life.

Such as the comment "It's great how blatant the humor is in this game. Yeah, its offensive. If I wasn't able to find humor in offensive material, I wouldn't be at this website, would I?"

The game also contains some clips of George Bush speaking. Sigvatr knows he's pushing things: "My current host will definitely take the site down once they receive enough complaints, which they have done to me before," he says.

Perhaps the interesting question is: was it the "massacre" bit of the name that offended, or the Muslim one? And if it's the latter, then would it be OK for it to be called Buddhist Massacre? Atheist Massacre? Puppy Massacre?

Still, it gives the papers something while the political parties get towards the conventions.